Vanity Fair: George and D&D regarding the last two books

[Derfel Cadarn]

There were 2/3 years between the first three books, and 5/6 years between the last two. He is most definitely getting slower.

He was writing ASOS in 1996, which was published in 2000. Still a big gap.

[sifth]

The first three books were published in '96, '98, and '00; however, he started writing A Game of Thrones in '91 and moved a lot of text from AGOT to ACOK and some to ASOS once it was clear his original plan of trilogy wasn't going to work.* He's getting slower yes, but he's always been fairly slow. The only time I think he was really writing fast was towards the end of ASOS.

*AGOT was originally going to end with the Red Wedding as I recall.

He didn't write the Red Wedding until literally everything else was done with ASOS. Tyrion's arc for ASOS's was written while he was writing ACOK's. He might have had the outline for someone of this stuff, but in terms of having the actual chapters written it's a very different story.

[olibar]

Why would George R. R. Martin devote an entire final book to resolving minor side-plots (what side-plots, anyway)?

Who said they were minor? For example the show could possibly drop the entire fAgeon story line. That could be a major part of a book 7 even if Dany had already taken the throne in book 6 (and at the end of the show). Or Sam's plot in Old Town could be dropped from the show, but in book 7 their plot comes to fruition and must be thwarted.

While the major conflicts may be resolved by a book 6 climax (Defeat of the Others, Who will have the Iron Throne, who will rule Winterfell) and show end, plot threads dropped from the show could come back to haunt characters in book 7 (fAgeon arrives to challenge for the throne, Danys dragons are killed in battle and now there is no easy way to fight the others, etc).

Are you saying that if book 6 ended with the following (that would also end the show)

Others turned back/defeated

Dany on the Iron Throne

Jon as ruler of the north and Winterfell

That you wouldn't read a book 7 knowing that

fAegon has aquired the army that Dany left behind and plans to take back his throne

Certain Starks may not be so keen on a bastard ruling Winterfell

The Others force defeated by Dany was just a small fraction of the total force. Winter is still coming.

Oldtown plot to kill Dany's dragons

To find out what happened?

Please note that I am not saying any of this is going to happen. This is merely an example of how a book 6 climax could serve as the end of the HBO shows plot lines while allowing for a book 7 that is still compelling and who's ending is in doubt

Even if book 7 still ended just like the show with

The Other Defeated

Dany on the Iron Throne

Jon as ruler of the north and Winterfell

[Faint]

Given the fact that Weiss and Benioff have been told about the ending of the series and are on record as saying it is fantastic, I see little reason why they would not use it.

[Fez]

He didn't write the Red Wedding until literally everything else was done with ASOS. Tyrion's arc for ASOS's was written while he was writing ACOK's. He might have had the outline for someone of this stuff, but in terms of having the actual chapters written it's a very different story.

I know that, but it was always going to be the last thing written for whichever book it was going to end up in; it was that hard to write. It doesn't change the fact that a lot of the three books was written concurrently; naturally not all of it, otherwise they might very well have come out at one-year intervals rather than two. But a lot of it.

[sifth]

I know that, but it was always going to be the last thing written for whichever book it was going to end up in; it was that hard to write. It doesn't change the fact that a lot of the three books was written concurrently; naturally not all of it, otherwise they might very well have come out at one-year intervals rather than two. But a lot of it.

well he had 200+ pages left over from ADWD that's going to be in this next book. So your same rule can apply to The Winds of Winter. Though the side projects are what really delayed this book if you ask me.

[FalseKnight]

There are plenty of TV / film companies. There is only one GRRM, the people not wanting to burn bridges would be HBO.

I can just see the headlines now "Big nasty TV company won't let a writer finish his books his way". Would Stephen King or John Grisham (or any other writer) think twice about working with HBO after such a thing happened?

Yeah writers would turn away truckloads of cash because HBO was mean to GRRM.

[Newstar]

Relevant quotes from this article (from Reddit, linked in another thread):

As for his progress on “Winds,” Martin says he is writing it “page by page, sentence by sentence.” “I’m working on it,” he said. “So I hope to finish it as soon as I can.” (...)

There’s been recent talk about a “Game of Thrones” movie to finish the series.

GRRM: Yes, I got in trouble for that. (...) This is all pie-in-the-sky stuff. People are asking me how the series is going to end. Is it going to be seven seasons? Is it going to be 10 seasons? Are there going to be movies? We talked about all these possibilities. But right now we have four seasons. That’s all that’s been ordered. (...) So right now we’re enjoying season 4 and we’re hoping we’ll get an order for season 5 within a month or so, and then we’ll do that one. And then we’ll see where that leads.

If there is talk of a movie, do you think it’s more powerful to be able to tell your narrative across 10 episodes versus two to three hours in a film?

(...) there’s no doubt that movies have greater financial resources. And the books keep getting bigger and bigger. There are more characters in every book. There are more battles and there’s more magic and the dragons are bigger. And there are sea battles and land battles and magic and a series of intertwining complicated plots. There are cities in flames and armies on the move, and huge stuff coming up. Would it be helpful to have a feature-sized budget to address some of those things? Certainly. Is it going to happen that way? I have no idea.

Points to the interviewer for trying to pin down GRRM on some of this stuff. I do like that GRRM got in trouble for running off his mouth about 10 seasons and a movie on the heels of an interview where D&D firmed up on the seven seasons number. He was being ridiculous and I'm glad he got called on it.

I do sort of get where GRRM is coming from, if he's planning multiple battles in TWOW and ADOS, since it seems like the show has finite resources for CGI and only has enough budget for one big battle sequence per season. On the other hand, it almost sounds like his ideal scenario is to do all post-ADWD material in movie form, alluding to all the battles and magic coming up. So what is his grand plan, 10 two-hour films for 20 hours' worth of TV material spaced out over the next 20 years? He really is starting to sound like Cersei in AFFC.

[FalseKnight]

So what is his grand plan, 10 two-hour films for 20 hours' worth of TV material spaced out over the next 20 years? He really is starting to sound like Cersei in AFFC.

We should remember that GRRM turned down the offer to turn ASoIaF into a movie franchise. He rightly said that the were too big to adapt in a few hours.